The two songs above are no longer available on youtube. The people writing those songs were criticizing strongly the French government, they were increasingly popular (millions of views in total) and so, their youtube account was terminated by youtube.

Recently I finished re-reading Mind Models by Roger Reynolds, the original 1975 edition. At the end of the book he presents analyses of a series of pieces that were unique in that day, at least one of which - Penderecki's Threnody - has become a "modern classic". Among the others I was especially captivated by Robert Ashley's "in memoriam... Esteban Gomez". Although I couldn't find Hornpipe by Gordon Mumma, I did find other works of his that I enjoyed. So I've spent a lot of the week listening to music by Robert Ashley, Gordon Mumma, Roger Reynolds, Salvatore Martirano, and Ben Johnston. Unusual music by some unusual suspects.

I found this album years ago by accident, at a public library sale. Apparently no one ever checked out the CD, so they put it up for sale. I had never heard of it, or the artists, but I read through the liner notes and saw that they were using midi and synthesizers in the early 80's and decided to give it a listen. When I got it home I was amazed, and it has been one of my favorite albums ever since.

Kit Watkins and Coco Roussel used to play together in a progressive rock band called Happy the Man, and apparently this album was a spin-off from that collaboration. There are some videos online of the two playing live together, but as far as I know "In Time" is their only studio album. It is completely instrumental.

The album is musically and rhythmically complex, as you might expect from two former members of a prog rock band, but it it extremely listenable and at times really beautiful and moving. The sound engineering and synth work is absolutely fantastic, but as good as the album is technically, this is overshadowed by the strength of the composition and virtuosity of the performance. And Roussel plays acoustic drums, which gives the album a really nice, organic feeling despite the fact that all of the other instruments are electronic.